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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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i THE DISASTER WHICH ECLIPSED 




I LLUSTRATED 



PUBLISHED BY 

BICIIABD 3C. POX, 

FRAKKUN SQ M NEW YORK. 




PRICE, 



10 CENTS. 

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Copyrighted 1889, by Richard K. Fox. 



PARIS UNVEILED 



■OR 



An Expose of Vice *> Crime 



-IN THE- 



GAY FRENCH CAPITAL 



Depicting in a truly graphic manner the 

doings and sayings of the liveliest 

people on the face of the earth 

in the liveliest capital in 

the isvorld. 



Handsomely and profusely illustrated with 
innumerably Engravings. 






Translated tram the French fapreudy for 



PRICE BY MAIL, 25 CENTS. 



RICHARD K. FOX, Publisher, 

Franklin Square, New York 



171889 ' 



/m£& 






HORROR! 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER WHICH ECLIPSED HISTORY 



A DEATH-DEALING DAM. 



Hundreds upon Hundreds of People 
Swept Away by the Flood. 



There is not one chance in a million that the Conemaugh river 
would ever have been heard of in history had it not been for its 
action on Friday evening, May 31. 

The Conemaugh river is, or rather was, a simple little stream 
that meandered through Northwestern Pennsylvania and made glad 
by its peaceful murmurings those who dwelt by its bankside, or bore 
tokens of affection in the way of pleasure-seeking picnickers, moon- 
light parties or across-stream excursionists upon its placid bosom. It 
was one of those inoffensive creeks, termed by courtesy a river, that 
the Hudson river of the East, the Mississippi of the Middle or the 
Red river of the West might call a stripling. 

There are times when even the still, small voice arises in its 
might and asserts its supremacy, and the wee small river of Cone- 
maugh did that self-same thing on Friday evening, May 31. AU 
along the banks of the listless, yet ever flowing, little alleged river 
the farmers were preparing for their anticipated harvests ; the fisher- 
men of the section — amateur fishermen indeed, for they were only 
equal to the fish — small and incomplete as was the Conemaugh, such 
as you and I, reader, who took pleasure in flinging their worm- 



2 JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 

crowded hooks into the stomach of a log and then going home for 
more bait ; bonny fairies, brisk young tillers of the soil, toilers, and 
seeming-tired miners, these and all other human concomitants that go 
to make up such a quiet, thriving bailiwick dwelt in the locality. 

And so went on the listless life of the denizens of the Cone- 
:maugh Valley, nestling at the foot of the Allegheny range. 

Snuggling in the cosiest nook, right where no prying reporter or 
trout-fishing President ever bent his way was Johnstown. The word 
" was " is used advisedly, Johnstown is no more. At four o'clock on 
the fateful day all was serene. At six o'clock all was desolation and 
.destruction. 




THE OLD JOHNSTOWN. 

The " big dam " had broken and the little brooklet had burst its 
■sides for very glee at being dubbed a creek, and was making itself 
known in history. The Brooklyn Theatre holocaust, with its dead 
three hundred, paled into insignificance. The Mud Run and Read- 
ing disasters had to take a back seat. 

" Let me alone for horror," murmured the Conemaugh, " and I'll 
get there ! " 

It did get there. 

Right above Johnstown on the self-same Conemaugh, or rather 
where the North Fork glides into that erstwhile inoffensive stream, 
was a reservoir. 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 3 

The reservoir is on the site of the old lake, which was one of the 
feeders of the Pennsylvania Canal. It is the property of a number 
■of wealthy gentlemen in Pittsburg, who formed themselves into the 
•corporation, the title of which is the South Fork Fishing and Hunting 
Club. This sheet of water was formerly known as Conemaugh Lake. 
It is from two hundred to three hundred feet above the level of 
Johnstown, being in the mountains. It is about three and one-half 
miles long and from a mile to one and one-fourth miles in width, and 
in some places it is ioo feet in depth. It holds more water than any 
other reservoir, natural or artificial, in the United States. The lake 
has been quadrupled in size by artificial means, and was held in check 
by a dam from 700 to 1,000 feet wide. It was 90 feet in thickness at 
the base, and the height was 110 feet. The top has a breadth of over 
twenty feet. 

From what could be ascertained by the writer, the reservoir-banks 
had not been considered absolutely safe by the people of the big and 
growing town. The reservoir was an artificial rather than a natural 
lake. The art came in when the South Fork Club, a corporation of 
gentlemen, took charge of the reservoir and dammed it. The South 
Fork Club had the dam inspected once a month by the Pennsylvania 
Railroad engineers, and their investigation showed that nothing less 
than some convulsion of nature would tear the barrier away and 
loosen the weapon of death. The steady rains of the past forty-eight 
hours had increased the volume of water in. all the small mountain 
streams, which had already been swelled by the lesser rains earlier in 
the week. At this time it was evident that something in the nature of 
a cloudburst must have occurred just before the waters broke through 
the embankment. 

Then the water came. 

It came with a rush that astonished the natives. 

There was a low murmuring at first, and then a rushing, hissing 
noise ; then crevices appeared in the dam side. Then the embank- 
ment gave away, and onward rushed the torrent. It meant death and 
destruction to the fairest country on God's footstool. Johnstown be- 
came a City of the Dead, and the once pleasant valley was the Valley 
of Death. 

Only those who were on the spot at the time can or could tell of 
the terrible scenes that ensued, and even they could not depict them 
in their real colors. It would take the pen of a mightier than human 
hand to indite the story, and a brush of a heaven-inspired artist to de- 
lineate the action. All was desolation, death and destruction. ' 



4 JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 

Men, women and children, animals, houses, furniture, were swept 
on the hell-bent waters ! 

All through Cambria came the flood. Then on to Cooperdale. 
Frantic mothers, with children born and unborn were compelled to 
flee, and then had to succumb to the deluge. The cruel, on-rushing 
tide had nothing in its instincts humanitarian. The death-tide rolled 
onward and suckling babes were swept from their mother's breasts 
even as if the King of Old had proclaimed. . 

So on to St. Florence in Fairfield — well-named. The people at 
Ninevah and the quiet, easy-going folk of the cruel-river towns 
counted their losses by hundreds. 

"Ten thousand dead," was the announcement that came over 
the wires. 

The effect can never be told. Centuries may come and go, but 
no century can make its mark in the history of time like that of the 
Nineteenth, with its aide, the Conemaugh. 

) 




MIDST FIRE AND FLOOD. 

Hundreds upon hundreds of lives were lost. The number can- 
not even be approximated, for in such regions there are always 
innumerable people — what the careless world calls its floating popu- 
lation — who would not be missed or accounted for until the Judgment 
roll is called. 

Even on Monday, three days after the horror, mothers meandered 
about frantically begging that their children might be returned to 
them, and men with hearts brushed tears from their eyes and endeav- 
ored to make them believe that their dear ones had been rescued. 
Children pleadingly prayed that they might be saved, but the cruel, 
ever onward-rushing flood gathered them in and swept them onward. 

To add to the horror the Johnstown Bridge, as if to add terror 
to terror and to make confusion worse confounded, swept from its 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 5 

approaches and precipitated the horror-stricken multitude into the 
torrent. An overturned stove in a dwelling inaugurated a conflag- 
ration. Nearly a hundred people were literally burned to death, 
thus adding holocaust to the far more preferable death by drowning. 

Scarcely had the news of the terrible disaster been sent abroad 
than the alert newspapers had their commissioners speedily on their 
way to the scene. 

Only the most meagre accounts had been given to the public for 
the reason that every mode of communication via telegraph or train 
had been cut off. 

When the newspaper representatives reached Johnstown the scene 
was a pitiable one. The former town was a swamp. Debris was 
piled here, there and everywhere, and the pestilential stench from the 
dead bodies was next to unbearable. 

The scene beggars description. 

Even the trained newspaper men turned their eyes aside and 
held their nostrils. Corpses everywhere. Dank corpses at that, with 
glazed, fishy eyes and sloppy wet hair, that made the onlooker feel 
aweary, and not over anxious to handle. 

In a single hole, after the waters had passed by, one hundred 
and fifty bodies were found. Just imagine it ! Two hours before 
these one hundred and fifty souls were alive, but there they were, 
huddled together as if they had been congregated for the purpose 
which had asserted itself. 

East Conemaugh was almost depopulated, and Franklinborough, 
on the north of Johnstown, was entirely swept away. Mineral Point, 
between Johnstown and the viaduct, was blotted out of existence. If 
any of the six hundred souls that formerly resided there are alive, 
the reporters could not find them. Ninevah, just below the Cone- 
maugh furnace, is a city of corpses. Indeed, from South Fork to 
Bolivar and for a distance of a dozen miles or so the banks of the 
old-time river are literally strewn with corpses. 

After the death-dealing current had gone on the work of tallying 
began. It will never be ended. 

Then the fiends in human shape began their ghoulish work of 
robbing the dead. Summary punishment was dealt out to some of 
them. A vigilance committee, hastily organized, ran a score of them 
into the river, and that was the end of them. 

At five o'clock on Monday evening hundreds upon hundreds of 
citizens are arriving upon the scene. Coffins are coming in by the 
carload, and the result of philanthropic and necessary aid began to 
pour in. 



6 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 



More relief is needed. 

The best story of the horror can be gathered from the tale of am 
eye-witness, C. W. Linthicum. Said he : 

" My train left Pittsburg Friday morning for Johnstown. The 
train was due at Sang Hollow at 4.02, but was five minutes late. 

" At Sang Hollow, just as we were about to pull out, we heard 
that the flood was coming. Looking ahead up the valley, we saw an 
immense wall of water thirty feet high raging, roaring, rushing 
toward us. 

" The engineer reversed his engine and rushed back to the hills 
at full speed, and we barely escaped the waters. We ran back three 
hundred yards and the flood swept by, tearing up tracks, telegraph 
poles, houses and trees.. 




A STEAM HORSE WRECKED. 



" Superintendent Pitcairn was on the train. We all got out and 
tried to save the floating people. Taking the bell-cord, we formed a 
line and threw the rope out, thus saving seven persons. 

" We could have saved more, but many were afraid to let go the 
debris. It was an awful sight. The immense volume of water was; 
roaring along, whirling over huge rocks, dashing against the banks 
and leaping high in the air, and this seething flood was strewn with 
timber, trunks of trees, parts of houses, and hundreds of human 
beings, cattle and almost every animal. 

" The fearful peril of the living was not more awful than the 
horror of hundreds of distorted, bleeding corpses whirling along the 
avalanche of death. 

"We counted 107 people floating by and dead without number. 
A section of roof came by, on one of which were sitting a woman 
and a girl." 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. T 

Other tales by eye-witnesses confirm the fact that the horror has 
never been excelled by anything of its kind in history. 

Indeed, it will never perhaps be known what the real extent of 
the awful calamity is. 

Johnstown, with its former population of ten thousand or there- 
abouts, was almost entirely swept away when the awful floods came,, 
and many of the villages between that point and Nineveh are things 
of the past so far as life is concerned. Indeed the whole valley is a. 
veritable Valley of the Shadow of Death. 

So great was the crush of the wreckage, debris and dead bodies', 
at some points along the valley that dynamite had to be used, thus; 
adding to the horror of the scene. 

Nineveh is twenty-three miles below Johnstown, yet a large num- 
ber of the bodies found at Nineveh were those of former residents of 
Johnstown, who had been swept that great distance down the valley 
to their death. 

There are incidents where bodies were carried a hundred miles 
and there deposited. 

A relation of some of the real facts, circumstances and scenes, 
and incidents of the terrible disaster would be considered Munchau- 
senish by the majority of our readers, but some of them were mirac- 
ulous. Here is one. S. H. Klein, a New Yorker, had a queer ex- 
perience. He was at the Merchants' Hotel and he worked like a 
beaver during the trying times of Friday night and Saturday morning, 
aiding in the rescue of no less than sixty persons from the floating 
debris. Among these were the Rev. Mr. Phillips, his wife and two' 
children. Mr. Phillips is a stalwart man and when the flood struck 
his house he fled to the roof with his family. Presently the house 
floated and the sturdy dominie placed his wife and two children on a 
table. Then he got under the table, and, letting it rest with its 
precious burden on his head, arose to his feet. As the house floated 
down on the tide it grazed the hotel building, and Mr. Klein and 
others assisted in hauling the imperilled parson and his family into, 
an upper window of the hotel. 

Here are other incidents : The story of the mishap to the day 
express train at Conemaugh bridge is developing slowly through the 
efforts of the railway authorities to obtain definite information. Of 
the 300 passengers on the train, all but eight seem to be accounted 
for, and it is believed that these eight are lost. They are Bessie 
Bryan, daughter of Mahlon Bryan of Philadelphia, and her companion, 
Miss Paulson of Pittsburgh ; Mrs. Easley, Rev. Mr. Goodchild and 



8 JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 

Robert Hutchinson, of Newark, N. J.; Andrew Leonard, Mrs. J. 
Smith and Chris Meisel, manager of the Newark baseball club. 

Miss Bryan was a delicate young woman. She was returning 
from a Pittsburgh wedding with Miss Paulson. They had been pre- 
ceded the night before by the bridal couple, who were to be guests 
at the Bryan home at Germantown. They rode in the Pullman car, 
and did not get out quickly enough. Fearing that they could not 
reach the hill where the other passengers took refuge, they returned 
towards the car, but before they had reached it the waters caught 
them and carried them away. 

Miss Rose Clarke, a beautiful and well-known young lady, the 
daughter of a very prominent citizen, had a remarkable experience. 




A SECTION OF JOHNSTOWN NOW. 



"When the water rose," she said, "we were all at home. It 
drove us from floor to floor, and we had just reached the roof when 
the house started. It went whirling toward the bridge, struck it, and 
went down. Mother, my little sister and I all caught on another roof 
that was just above the water, but father and my little brother went 
down with the house. Father's face was towards us as he sank. He 
shouted goodby, and that was the last. Just then my little sister lost 
her hold and she followed father and brother. Then mother called 
out that she was going to drown. I got to her and raised her head 
out of the water. My head rested on a sawlog and a board protected 
me from the other timbers. Some rescuers came running down the 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 9 

bridge and saw us. I made them take mother out first and 
meantime I struggled to get out of the timbers, but they closed 
in on me. 

" The more I struggled the tighter they held me. The fire was 
just behind me, and I could feel its heat. By the time the men had 
carried mother to the bank the fire was so fieree they could hardly 
get back. When they did reach me they could not get me out, for 
my foot was fast between a saw log and a piece of timber. Then 
they ran for tools. The fire kept sweeping on before the breeze from 
up stream. I had almost resigned myself to an awful death when 
some other men braved the fire and reached me. They began chop- 
ping and sawing. One blow of an axe cut off a drowned man's hand. 
The men tied a rope around me. How they got me out finally I 
scarcely know. My kneecap was almost cut off. When the current 
sucked my father down he caught me by'the foot ; that is what drag- 
ged me so far into the timbers." 

Miss Clarke and her mother are both badly injured. Some of 
the men who rescued the young lady were Slavs. 

Miss Mamie Brown was caught in the timbers in almost the 
same way as Miss Clarke, near the bank. The fire was coming on 
towards her, and the would-be rescuers had been driven back. Finally 
John Schmidt braved the dangers and rescued her. Father Traut- 
wein, of St. Columbia's church, who witnessed Schmidt's brave con- 
duct, said if any man is a hero Schmidt is that man. 

As has been written dynamite had added its horror to the sixty- 
acre mass of wrecked buildings, railroads, streets and human beings 
that lie above the railroad bridge. A half dozen times on the after- 
noon of June 6, the heavy thunder of the huge cartridges was heard 
for miles around, and fragments of the debris flew high in the air, 
while at a distance the crowd looked on in dreadful sorrow at the 
thought of the additional mangling that the remains of the hundreds 
of bodies still buried in the mass were bound to undergo. There was 
little complaint, however, even on the part of those who have relatives 
or friends buried there, for the work of the past few days has shown 
how futile was the idea that anything but an explosive could effect- 
ually break up and remove the compact mass. 

All that hundreds of men have been able to do has amounted to 
nothing more than a little picking around the edges. Even the dyna- 
mite is doing the work slowly. The surface of the mass about where 
it was used is upheaved and washed about a bit, but the actual pro- 
gress is, so far as can be seen, very small. It will be a week before 
the gorge can be opened even now. Meanwhile a proposition is being 



10 JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 

discussed not to open it at all, but to bury it deep, and by filling in to 
raise the level of the whole city. 

There has been an unpleasant feeling between rival committees 
of citizens, and at a meeting held in Johnstown on Tuesday the 
whole matter was settled by the resignation of Chairman Moxham, of 
the old relief committee, and the appointment in his place of J. B. 
Scott, of Pittsburg, who is also chairman of the local relief commit- 
tee in that city. It is believed that this will be an additional guaran- 
tee to the country of fairness and impartiality in the disbursement of 
the funds. 

Gen. Hastings has made an estimate than the number of proven 
deaths will reach 5,000 and that the total will be 8,000. Besides the 
bodies which are dug up in this city, scores are brought in daily in 




"WHERE'S MAMMA." 

wagons and carts from places down the river, where they have been 
washed ashore. The number of the unknown increases as the passage 
of time increases the difficulty of indentification, and Gen. Hastings' 
estimate is considered extremely low. The abject destitution is now 
believed to be confined to Johnstown and the knots of towns immedi- 
ately surrounding it. South Fork is now in railroad communication 
with Altoona, and whatever is needed for people there and at Mineral 
Point and other adjacent places can come in from that direction until 
railroad and other routes can be opened up the valley from here. 
The towns are small and the proportion of deaths smaller than here. 

The chief labor of the living is still the burying of the dead. 
Their sole dependence for support is upon the charity of the country, 
a charity, be it said, that is proving as ready as the occasion is press- 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 11 

ing. The immediate daily necessities of the suffering people are be- 
ing met by trainloads of provisions and clothing that come in from all 
directions. The money available is being used to employ the idle in 
clearing away the debris, exhuming the dead from their hiding places, 
and generally in making Johnstown, to an extent, an inhabitable place 
once more for those of its people who have further need of homes 
above ground. What has been done and can be done with the money 
already in hand is a trifling beginning, but already the place shows the 
effects of the gangs of laborers who have been set to pulling down 
damaged buildings, removing and burning the bodies of animals and 
other offensive debris, and doing whatever else seemed most immedi- 
ately necessary for the health and well being of the place. 

From the morgue in the Fourth Ward school-house 350 bodies 
have been buried, and more are taken to the Grove Hill Cemetery 
every hour. They are buried there singly, if identified, and in rows 
and narrow trenches, one on top of the other, if not. The scenes at 
the different relief agencies, where food, clothing and provisions are 
given out on the order of Citizens' Commitee, are extremely interest- 
ing. These are established at the Pennsylvania Railroad depot, at 
Peters' Hotel, in Adams street, and in each of the suburbs. 

At the depot, where there is a large force of police, the people 
were kept in files, and the relief articles were given out with some reg- 
ularity, but at such a place as Kernsville, in the suburbs, the relief 
station was in the upper story of a partly wrecked house. 

The yard was filled with boxes and barrels of bread, crackers, 
biscuits and bales of blankets. The people crowded outside the yard 
in the street, and the provisions were handed to them over the fence, 
while the clothing was thrown to them from the upper windows. 
There was apparently great destitution in Kernsville. 

" I don't care what it is only so long as it will keep me warm," 
said one woman, whose ragged clothing was still damp this morning. 

The stronger women pushed to the front of the fence and tried to 
grab the pieces of clothing which came from the windows, but the 
people in the house saw the game and tossed the clothing to those in 
the rear of the crowd. A man stood on a barrel of flour and yelled 
out what the piece of clothing was as it came down. 

At each yell there was a universal cry of " That's just what I 
want. My boy is dying: he must have that. Throw me that for my 
poor wife." and the like of that. Finally the clothing was all gone, 
and there was some people who didn't get any. They went away be- 
wailing their misfortune. The fortunate ones were gleeful. 

Thousands upon thousands of dollars are being telegraphed here 



12 JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 

hourly, yes, every minute, for the relief of the bereaved. New York 
has come to the front nobly with over $200,000, and Brooklyn, Phila- 
delphia, Chicago and other cities, and, indeed, nearly every town and 
village in the country has sent its quota of relief funds. 

A word should be said right here regarding the cause of the disaster. 

The South Fork Fishing Club is held chiefly responsible. The 
broken dam shows that it was simply a pile of dirt and rubble 
dumped across a stream between two hills that formed the banks of 
the reservoir. When the water began to break through this dam every- 
thing had to give way, causing a torrent sixty feet high to rush onward 
toward the doomed valley. 

The dam was built many years ago to create a reservoir for use 
as a feeder to the Pennsylvania Canal. The builders placed in the 




DOWN WITH THE TIDE. 

forty-foot space at the bottom, where the creek ran, five huge pipes, 
each as large as a hogshead. These were covered by an arch of 
massive masonry, and were arranged to be opened or closed by levers 
in a tower that was built in the centre of the dam. 

These five big pipes were calculated to be large enough to carry 
off all surplus water that could ever be poured into the lake above 
and which could not escape by the regular exit, which was a sluice- 
way around one corner of the dam at a level of eight of ten feet 
below the top. This sluiceway was really a new stream, the water 
passing off through it finding its picturesquely winding course down 
the hillside and running with the stream again some distance below 
the dam. The sluiceway and waste gates never failed to do the work 
for which they were designed, and there is no reason to suppose that 
they would have failed to do so at the present time and for the future 
had they been maintained as the builders contemplated. 



I 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 13 

When the Pennsylvania Canal was abandoned the dam became 
useless, and was neglected. The tower in which the machinery- 
managing the waste gates is located is said to have fallen into ruin a 
few years ago. 

The lake was then leased by the Pittsburgh Sportsman's Associa- 
tion. Engineer Fulton, of the Cambria Iron Company made an 
inspection of it and pronounced it dangerous. The Association set 
out, they declared, to improve and strengthen it. 

They did cut off two feet from the top of the dam, and may 
have strengthened it in some respects ; but either because the waste 
gates were so damaged that to repair them would have been an 
expensive job, or, for the other reason mentioned, that the fish would 
escape by the waste gates, everyone who lives near says the gates 
were permanently stopped up. The present appearance of the wreck 
of the dam indicates the truthfulness of the story. There are rem- 
nants of the waste gate masonry, but there is no indication that they 
have been of any practical use for a long time. 

Another awful day has come and gone, and as the work of un- 
earthing the bodies goes bravely on, scenes and incidents have been 
more heartrending, if possible, than those of the previous days. 

It is now a pretty well settled fact that at least 12,000 souls were 
washed downward to destruction, desolation and death. It may be 
more. 

The destruction of property is already estimated at over $30,- 
000,000, but the returns are not yet all in by any means. 

Up on the hillsides are whole camps of shrieking, crying, groan- 
ing and moaning men, women and children,, nearly naked, and 
almost absolutely without sustenance. Willing hands are aiding and 
assisting them by all means in their power, but these means are 
extremely limited. 

Thousands upon thousands, upon thousands again of dollars 
from the charitably disposed through the country have been sent here, 
and the money is being used as best it can. What is more necessary, 
however, are large quantities of food and clothing. 

The readers of this story can best appreciate this fact when it is 
told that there is not a store of any consequence left in this place, 
or, indeed, anywhere in the vicinity. The committee in charge of the 
financial part of the work is in despair at the enormous extent of the 
task before it, and to-day issued an appeal to the official authorities 
and the financial organizations of the country to designate a commis- 
sion to take charge of the work. 



14 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 



Disease consequent upon the reaction after the excitement and 
hardships of the past week threatens to make sad inroads into the 
portion of the population that still remains alive. The condition of 
the ruins, filled with dead bodies, menaces a still more serious situa- 
tion, which is being delayed, providentially, by the continued cool 
weather. Danger hangs over the unhappy town from another source. 
The presence of nearly ten thousand laboring men, half of them 
gathered at random from the idle classes in other parts of the country, 
and divided by race and other prejudices, threatens to lead to rioting 
and disorder beyond the power of the military now on hand to quell. 




IN THE DEATH TRAP. 



Liquor has been introduced among these men surreptitiously and 
trouble is feared. Very strict regulations are enforced. The whole 
city is surrounded by a guard of soldiers, and more troops are under 
orders in Pittsburgh, ready to come here at once if needed. An effort 
is being made to cut off, as far as possible, the means of entrance to 
the city, so as to keep away the crowds. The number of passenger 
trains has been reduced to the lowest possible number, and no tickets 
to Johnstown are sold except upon a permit from the Relief Com- 
mittee at Pittsburgh. 

The feeling against the Pittsburgh association that owns the lake 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 15 

and dam that caused the calamity grows more intense the more the 
truth about the dam becomes known. The disclosure of the fact that 
the dam was simply a heap of dirt with loose stone facings, instead of 
a structure of solid masonry, and that the waste gates had been closed 
up by the association, which was printed in a Pittsburgh paper the 
other morning, made a sensation here, and threatens to bring the 
matter to a head. Criminal prosecution is freely talked of, but it is 
thought that it will be difficult to sustain a case, even in courts as 
prejudiced as those in Cambria county will be against the dam owners. 
The men are rich and responsible, however, and the liability of civil 
action is generally believed to be complete. If they should be held 
liable in civil suits for damages, it is probable that many, if not all of 
them, will be financially ruined. There is an abundance of evidence 
that the owners were frequently warned by old residents in the neigh- 
borhood of the dam that.it. was, becoming weaker and getting into a 
more dangerous condition all the time. 

One fact alone, as to the dam, ought to convict the dam owners 
of negligence. The stone face that; went up each side of the dam 
was not continued across the. top. In order to maintain a wagon 
road there the top of the dirt heap had merely been leveled off and 
left in its natural condition. It was a moral certainty that if the water 
even rose so high as to go over the top of the dam it would wash it 
out. With the water-washing over the dirt top of the dam, the rock 
facing would amount to no more, as a source of strength, than a 
sheathing of cardboard. To have covered the top of the dam with a 
substantial course of stone capping, arched, or in some other way 
arranged to offer as little resistance as possible to the passage of the 
water, would have spoiled the wagon road, but it might have saved 
the dam. 

Better opinion will no doubt prevail, and unless something new 
transpires later another scene of devastation will be averted. 

En passant, to show the power of the voluminous flood, these 
incidents of the awful day are related : 

The morning of June 6 the wreck of an express train was un- 
earthed. The baggage of Miss Annie Chism, of Nashville, Tenn., 
was found. She was a missionary on her way to Brazil for the 
Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church. 

Among her effects was a Bible, and in it was a message to be 
filed at Altoona and addressed to the Methodist concern at No. 20 
East Tenth street, New York, announcing that she was on the train. 
Her watch, some money and a Greek Testament were also found. It 



16 JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 

is evident that many lives were lost on this train, more than at first 
supposed. 

The whole train affair is still a mystery. At least the passengers 
have not so far been found and located. The body of a nicely-dressed 
lady was found yesterday which was so decomposed as to be unrecog- 
nizable. The effects of Miss Chism were sent to Altoona. 

There was a small riot at the labor camp one morning on account 
of a lack of food and of utensils for cooking. Mr. Flinn, who is at 
the head of the labor bureau, told the men it was impossible to get 
things down from the railroad, but that this would be remedied as 
soon as possible. 

He also said that they did not want men who expected to live on 
the fat of the land, and that this was principally a work of charity, 
even though the men were paid for their work. 




MINING FOR THE DEAD. 

A few minutes after this, as Mr. Flinn was drinking some black 
coffee and eating some hard crackers and cheese, two workmen came 
up to him and commenced to complain because they did not have 
soup and meat. 

This enraged Mr. Flinn and after telling them that he thought 
he was used to as good as they were, he ordered the guards to take 
the men out of town and not permit them to come back again. 
This seemed to have the desired effect and there was no more 
trouble. 

It had been known for several days that the Rev. J. A. Ranney 
and the parents of Mrs. Charles Harly, of Delhi, Ind., were on one of 
the ill-fated trains overtaken by the flood in Conemaugh Valley, and 
no tidings could be received from them. 

Word comes that Mr. Ranney has arrived home. He telegraphs: 
" Mrs. Ranney and I were on the train at Conemaugh when the flood 
came. The occupants of our car rushed for the door, where Mrs. 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 17 

Ranney and I became separated. She was one of the first to jump, 
and I saw her run and disappear behind the houses in sight. Before 
I could get out the deluge was too high, and with a number I re- 
mained in the car. Our car was lifted up and dashed against a car 
loaded with stone, and was badly wrecked, but most of the occupants 
were saved. As far as I know all who jumped from the car lost their 
lives. The rest of the train was swept away. I searched for days 
for Mrs. Ranney and could find no trace of her. I think she per- 
ished. The mind cannot conceive the awful sight presented when we 
first saw the danger. The approaching wall of water looked like 
Niagara, and huge engines were caught up and whirled away as if 
they were mere wheelbarrows." 

Here is another telegram : " Mrs. Susan Stonebraker with her 
three children, arrived at Camden Station, Baltimore, Md., from 
Johnstown this afternoon, and was met by her brothers. 

" We lived at Millville, just across the stream from Johnstown," 
she said. " When the water rose higher and higher we sought safety 
at a neighbor's. Soon after the water struck us with full force, and I 
am sure some of the occupants of the house were drowned. Soon 
after we all took planks and floated down the stream, as the waters 
rose so high in the house that we thought it unsafe to remain. I saw 
babies in cradles floating along, and one floated down as far as Alle- 
gheny City, about eighty miles, where it was rescued. Our house 
was the first to be dashed against the stone bridge, and immediately 
after we were swept against it on our boards. I must have seen at 
least a thousand persons drowned. We stayed on the wreck from 
3 :$o on Friday afternoon until after 3 on Saturday morning, when we 
were rescued. My husband, Joseph H. Stonebraker, had several ribs 
broken, and is now in the hospital. Before we were rescued the 
wreck took fire, and had we remained a short time longer we would 
have been lost." 

Word comes from Steubenville, O., to this effect : Mrs. Frank 
Davis and her two children have arrived home from Johnstown with 
the body of her husband who was employed there. Mrs. Davis and 
her children went to visit him last week and stayed at the house of a 
friend named Hamilton, where Davis boarded. During Friday water 
came into the house, and all were busy moving things to the upper 
floors. When the deluge came they were in the third story, and the 
house was carried against a brick block and was partly broken up, 
"but stuck fast. 

Davis' foot got crushed in between the timbers and he was held 



.18 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 



fast. Every effort was made to release him, but to no avail. With 
one child clinging to her neck and the babe on her shoulders, Mrs. 
Davis worked desperately, but the fastened foot could not be extri- 
cated, and the water continued to rise. How this woman must have 
suffered! Pangs of the most horrible death couldn't be worse. Men 
dived down into water to see what held the foot. The water reached 
Davis' mouth and he held back his head 

Mrs. Davis laid down her babe in the water and pulled with re- 
newed energy. The water came up to her husband's nose, and while 
with brave energy she attempted to rescue, she never lost sight of her 
children, who at times she held above her head to keep them from 
drowning. Then the roof was taken off the building, the floor lifted 
up and floated down against another building, where it lodged, and. 
Mrs. Davis and her children were rescued. 




IN A MORGUE. 



Other scenes of a like nature could be told and as usual in such 
cases there was a hero of heroes present, a self-sacrificing young man, 
who nearly lost his own life in his efforts to save those of his fellows : 

Hundreds of lives were saved by this second Paul Revere, by 
name John G. Parke, and hundreds more would probably have es- 
caped violent death if the warning had been heeded. It is not exag- 
geration to call young Parke a hero. He is an engineer. He saw 
that the South Fork dam must go, and jumping into the saddle, he 
dashed down the valley at terrific speed, shouting out his warning : 
" The dam ! The dam is breaking. Run for your lives ! " When 
he arrived at South Fork station, Parke sent a telegraphic message to 
Johnstown, two miles below, warning the inhabitants of the town of 
the coming disaster. He sent his message fully an hour before the 
flood came. When the water was almost upon him Parke fled to the 
mountains. 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 19 

Too modest to speak of his actions in this regard, young Mr. 
Parke was prevailed upon to tell what he knew about the breaking of 
the dam. Said he: 

" On Thursday night the dam was in perfect condition, and the 
water was not within seven feet of the top. At that stage the lake 
is nearly three miles long. It rained very hard Thursday night, I 
am told, for I slept too soundly myself to hear it, but when I got 
up Friday morning I could see there was a flood, for the water was 
over the drive in front of the club house and the level of the water 
in the lake had risen until it was only four feet below the top of 
the dam. I rode up to the head of the lake and saw that the woods 
were boiling full of water. South Fork and Muddy Run, which 
emptied into the lake were fetching trees, logs, cut timber, and stuff 
from a sawmill that was up in the woods in that direction. This 
was about 7.30 o'clock. When I returned, Col. Unger, the presi- 
dent of the club, hired twenty-two Italians, and a number of farmers 
joined in to work on the dam. Altogether thirty men were at 
worjc. A plough was run along the top of the dam, and earth was 
thrown on the face of the dam to strengthen it. At the same time 
a channel was dug on the west end of the dam to make a sluice- 
way there. There was about three feet of shale rock through which 
it was possible to cut, but then we struck bed rock that it was impos- 
sible to get through without blasting. When we got the channel opened, 
the water soon scoured down to the bed rock, and a stream 30 feet 
wide and 3 feet deep rushed out on that end of the dam, while the 
weir was letting an enormous quantity on the other end. Notwith- 
standing these outlets, the water kept rising at the rate of about 10 
inches an hour. 

. "By 11.30 I had made up my mind it was impossible to save 
the dam, and getting my horse I galloped down the road to South 
Fork to warn the people of their danger. The telegraph tower is 
- a mile from the town, and I sent two men there to have messages 
sent to Johnstown and other points below. I heard that the lady 
operator fainted when she sent off the news, and had to be carried 
off. The people at South Fork had ample time to get to the high 
grounds, and they were able to move their furniture, too. In fact, 
only one person was drowned at South Fork, and he while attempting 
to fish something from the flood as it rolled by. It was just 12 o'clock 
when the telegraph messages were sent out, so that the people of 
Johnstown had over three hours' warning. 

"As I rode back to the damT expected almost every moment to 



20 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 



meet the lake coming down on me, but the dam was still intact, 
although the water had reached the top. At about i o'clock I 
walked over the dam. At that time the water was three inches 
deep on it, and was gradually eating away the earth on the outer face 
As the stream rolled down the outer face it kept wearing down the edge 
of the embankment, and I saw it was merely a question of time. I then 
went up to the club house and got dinner, and when I returned I 
saw a great deal more of the outer edge of the dam had crumbled 
away. The dam did not give away. At a rough guess I should 
say that there was 60,000,000 tons of water in that lake, and the pres- 
sure of that mass of water was increased by floods from two streams 




IDENTIFYING THE REMAINS. 



pouring into it, but the dam would have stood it could the level of the 
lake have been kept below the top of the dam. But the friction of 
the water pouring over the top of the dam gradually wore it 
away from the outer face until the top became so thin that it gave 
away. 

" The break took place at 3 o'clock. It was about ten feet wide 
at first and shallow, but now that the flood had made a gap, it grew 
wider with increased rapidity, and the lake went roaring down the 
valley. That three miles of water was drained out in forty-five 
minutes. The downfall of those millions of tons was simply irre- 
sistible. Stones from the dam and boulders in the river bed were 
carried for miles." 

Perhaps the most heartless story in the annals of any city has 
been told to-day of this unfortunate place. To charge extortionate 
prices for food, as many of the people in the surrounding villages 
did when the hungry survivors asked them for bread, was cruel 
enough. This is an oft-told tale in the presence of such calamities 
as this; but probably never before did vampires seek to use such a 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 21 

terrible misfortune as this to ruin the souls, to try and lure the 
orphans of the valley to the dens of vice. 

Supt. Hines, the chairman of the Committee on Transportation, 
is authority for the story that for the past two days two women of 
Pittsburgh have been here offering homes in that city to young girls 
who have been left without any protectors. Their object was not sus- 
pected at first, but subsequently they were recognized, and it became 
evident that their intention was to take girls away to their own places 
of iniquity in the Smoky City. It is not known whether any of the 
unfortunate maidens fell into the trap, as the two women became 
frightened and left this scene of desolation. Supt. Hines was terribly 
angered at this exhibition of utter heartlessness, and declared after he 
had tried in vain to find them that had he laid his hands on them 
they would have had a ducking in the Conemaugh before they got 
away. It is related here that women of the same class have been 
seen around the depots in Pittsburgh on the arrival of trains from 
here waiting to see if they could not gain possession of the poor 
victims who were going into the city to begin life anew in a strange 
place. 

To-day it is reported that a young lad, Eddie Fisher, has com- 
mitted suicide after spending a week in brooding over the loss of his 
entire family, and that an unknown woman suddenly became insane 
in the street and had to be removed to a hospital. It is impossible to 
verify either of these stories, but they are thought to be true, though 
no information could be had about them at headquarters. 

New stories of incidents of the flood are heard every day, and 
probably will continue to be told' for weeks to come, but certainly the 
most touching of any that have yet been narrated is that of the 
Frohnheiser family. The father was a well-known workman in the 
Cambria Iron Works, and lived with his wife, two little girls and a 
son in a cottage, which was washed away. The mother and elder 
daughter were lost, but the father managed to crawl from the room 
with the other two children through a rent made by the flood in the 
roof. He reached down after his boy and told him to come near to 
him, but the lad answered : "It is no use, papa, you can't save me, 
I'm too far away. Save Katie, she is near to you." Now the little 
girl had her leg broken by being jammed in between some furniture, 
and she cried : " You can't save me, papa, for my leg is caught. 
Save him or cut my leg off and get me out." The boy also asked 
the father to give him a pistol and he would shoot himself, but just 
then the house, which had been floating down stream, suddenly struck 



22 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 



high ground and fell over on its side. The father landed unhurt, and 
the two children were thrown out on the hillside. The boy was unhurt 
and the little girl is now in the hospital doing quite well. 

In order to prevent the spread of the pestilence which is feared, 
fires were late last night started among the wreckage. Thus, in 
order to save valuable remaining lives, it has been deemed necessary 
to destroy by the other fearful element the festering debris, even if 
the bodies underneath have to be cremated with it. It is the only 
manner in which the health of the locality can be sustained. 

If Johnstown suffered, Cambria City was almost entirely wiped 
out. The work of repairing the wreck in this place will be short, as 
the flood did the most of it. Nowhere in all the fifteen-mile course 
of the fearful torrent was the surface of the earth swept more clean 
than in that place. Cambria City was a borough organized separately 
from Johnstown, and lying below it on the opposite side of the river. 




THE THREE HUNDREDTH BODY. 



It began just below the railroad bridge, and extended for a mile dov/n 
the river. The Conemaugh below the bridge makes a long curve 
from the mountains, and a flat a mile long, with a curving front half 
a mile wide at its widest point, is left. Cambria City was built upon 
this! flat. There were 600 houses and about 3,000 inhabitants. Most 
of the houses were small frame buildings very lightly built. There 
were a few large stores, a small brick brewery, street car lines, electric 
lights, and other substantial improvements above ground. 

,. The plan of the town in a general way, was of four broad streets 
running across the flat lengthwise, with numerous cross streets at 
right angles. The first wild dash of the flood, when its advance 
wave was shattered against the bridge, was turned aside into the 
Cambria Iron Works, across the river from Cambria City. Passing 
through these from end to end, the outer half of the flat upon which 
Cambria City was built lay straight before it. The flood with a front, 
of twenty feet high, bristling with all manner of debris, struck straight, 
across the fiat, as though the river's course had always been that 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 23 

vay. It cut off the outer two-thirds of the city with a line as true 
and straight as could have been drawn by a surveyor. On the part 
over which it swept there remains standing but one building, the brew- 
ery. With this exception, not only the houses and stores, but the 
pavements, sidewalks and curbstones, and the earth beneath for sev- 
eral feet, is washed away so that the water mains are laid bare. The 
pavements were of cinders from the iron works, a bed six inches thick, 
as hard as stone and with a surface like macadam. Over most of the 
washed-out portions of the city not even the broken fragments of 
these pavements are left. Along the edge of the river much of the 
land was made ground built up of these cinders. The mass of them 
was so great, and the surface afforded so little hold for the flood, that 
the land here is two or three feet higher than further inland, where 
the ground yielded easier. But even here the water left its mark. 
Beside the sweeping away of all buildings upon the surface of the 
land itself, the hard cinder mass is torn, split and corrugated, as if 
chiseled and cut by some convulsion of nature. 

Of the 600 houses of Cambria City nearly 400 stood upon the 
part of the flat which the first rush of the flood covered. If all the 
debris, not only of the houses, but of logs, timber and other driftwood 
that the flood left upon that mile long short cut across the bend in 
the river, were piled into a heap it would not make a mass as large as 
a single one of all the buildings swept away. There are not half a 
dozen' wheelbarrow loads of earth or sand left upon the surface of the 
flat. The rush of the water left nothing on top except the heavy 
rocks and stones, and these were tossed about so thickly that they 
cover the whole surface, distributed as though some volcano had 
covered the earth with a shower of rocks. 

Aside from the few logs and timbers left by the afterwash of the 
flood there is nothing remaining upon the outer edge of the flat, in- 
cluding two of the four long streets of the city, except the brewery 
mentioned before and a grand piano. The water marks on the. 
brewery walls show that the flood reached twenty feet up its sides, 
and it stood on a little higher ground than the buildings around it at 
that. Jacob Greener, the owner, with his family and workmen — nine 
men and two women in all — were caught in the building by the flood. 
They took refuge in the attic over the store-room and were saved. 
The brewery was completely wrecked and will have to be torn down, 
but the main walls remained standing. The piano was built by 
Christie & Son, New York, and was numbered 6,609. ^ ts * e S s are 
gone and its cover is missing. The keys seem a little out of order, 
and two or three of the wires are broken. 



24 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 



Of the 200 houses that were not swept away by the short cut of 
the flood across the flats, there are not half a dozen that are uninjured. 
Fully half of them are wrecked completely. The value of those that 
can be repaired would not pay for the cost of removing the others. 
As far as property is concerned, it would have been cheaper if the 
flood had made its clean sweep over the whole of Cambria City. It 
would surely have done so had not the bridge checked it and turned 
it aside. 

The death rate among these fragile frame buildings was horrible. 
The borough authorities estimate the loss of life at 1,100. Almost 
750 bodies have already been recovered and brought to the morgue, 
It is not probable that Cambria City will be rebuilt, at least for a long 




DEATH S HARVEST CART. 

time. The expense of preparing that rocky plain for building would 
be enormous. There is not a street left or any landmark by which to 
determine the location of lots, except the water mains through one or 
two streets. The part of the town still in existence will probably be 
put in order and maintained, but the broad flat will doubtless remain 
a rocky desert for a long time to come. 

And all the time all along the valley the work of recovering the 
dead goes on with undiminished vigor, and as the workmen become 
accustomed to the terrible scenes they apply themselves more dili- 
gently to their duty and labor with a system that produces rapid 
results. 

The great number of bodies not identified seems incredible. 
Some of these bodies have lain in the different morgues for four days. 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 25 

Thousands of people from different parts of the State have seen them, 
yet they remain unidentified. At Nineveh they are burying all the 
unidentified dead, but in the morgues in this vicinity no bodies have 
been buried unless they were identified. There are at present thirty 
unidentified bodies at the Fourth ward school house. 

These bodies have been lying there for the past three days, and 
in that time at least forty thousand people have viewed them, but no 
one has identified them, and they have nothing in their clothing to 
indicate who they are. During the past twenty-four hours sixty 
bodies were embalmed and taken from this place. This morning five 
bodies were brought in. 

But to enumerate would be too great a task, when reports of ad- 
ditional bodies being found are constantly coming in from all points 
along the valley. 

Judge Advocate Rogers, of Gov. Beaver's staff, this morning 
decided an important question which arose by the discovery of forty 
barrels of whiskey in a building on Main street. Adjt.-Gen. Hastings 
was disposed to confiscate it as a safeguard, according to a section 
in the military code which prohibited the sale of liquor within the 
limits of a military camp. Judge Advocate Rogers ruled that it was 
private property, and a licensed dealer had a right to sell liquor. Be- 
sides, it was not a military camp, but a posse comitatus, the militia- 
men doing police duty. 

Last evening employees of Lutz & Son unearthed ten barrels of 
beer from the cellar of a building on Main street. The body of a 
man was found close beside it. The driver was bringing his capture 
away when Major Samuel Hastings arrested him. Adj't-Gen. Hast- 
ings knocked in the head of a barrel and let the beer run into the 
street. " Under orders it was all destroyed. 

" You will not be paid for the beer," said Gen. Hastings to the 
owners. 

Among the bodies recovered in Kernville yesterday was that of 
a young woman richly attired, wearing diamond rings and a gold 
watoh marked " J. J. L. to E. J. L." The remains were taken to the: 
chapel on the hill. 

It is said that many cases of fever and diphtheria and pneumonia 
are being concealed from the people here for fear a panic may seize 
the workers, and if that should happen now probably no firm or people 
would attempt to touch the work here perhaps for months. Disin- 
fectants of all kinds are being freely used by the car load, and, in 
addition to this, a score of blazing piles in every direction shows that 
the purifying element of fire is being applied as rapidly as possible 
for the safety of the living. 

Work was resumed to-day in the shops of the Cambria Iron 
Company's mammoth steel mill, and the repairs to the building are 
being made with remarkable rapidity. The damage to the buildings 
has been stated, but the machinery was only slightly damaged. The 
blast furnaces were not hurt at all, and will be in operation as soon as 
a supply of coke can be obtained. There is some coke on 
hand, but it is too small an amount to begin with. The most 



:2G 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 



:serious loss to the firm was the destroyed papers, letters,, order- 
books, etc. 

The members of secret societies on the Conemaugh Valley fared 
unusually well. The junior O. U. A. M. are very strong here, having, 
a membership of 1,200. Out of this number only nine lives were lost. 
Most of them lost their homes, but all have employment and expect 
to be on their feet again in a short time. The committee from Pitts- 
burgh and Allegheny established headquarters in the upper end of 
the town and relieved the wants of all who applied. The councils 
responded, not only very liberally, but promptly. 

The Independent Order of Heptasophs had a membership' of 
eighty-five, and lost but two. None of their members are in want, 
and the committee sent to distribute provisions and clothing have re- 
turned home. They had more than enough. 




A TELEGRAPH OPERATOR'S DEATH. 



The Independent Odd Fellows had a membership of 506 here, 
.and out of that number lost seventy-nine. The distressed members 
are being well cared fon 

It is not known how many of the Masonic Order are lost, although 
a prominent Mason says they are few, and the survivors are being 
royally provided for by the relief committee of that fraternity 

A trap was laid for the crook undertaker who was robbing the 
bodies in the Fourth ward morgue. A female was brought in, and be- 
fore it was dressed for burial a diamond ring was placed upon one of 
her fingers, and the pseudo undertaker was assigned to take charge of 
the body. He was detected in the act of stealing the jewelry, and 
was promptly arrested by the chief of police, who immediately took him 
to Ebensburg. The officials refuse to give the name of the man. 

About forty bodies were recovered to-day up to 3 p. m., but of 
these only three were recovered at the bridge. 

Chalmer L. Dick, the ghouls' nemesis, bid good-by to this ill- 
fated town last night. He will hereafter reside in Mount Pleasant. 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. ,27 

Already twenty barrels of embalming fluid have been consumed,, 
aggregating 800 gallons. It requires from half a pint to a quart for 
each corpse. 

A Masonic relief committee has been organized and solicits aid 
for distressed Free Masons and their families. Remittances should be 
made by New York or Pittsburgh drafts to the order of Col. John F. 
Linton, treasurer, or Wm. F. Myer, secretary. Knights of the Mystic. 
Chain are requested to forward all subscriptions to the Supreme Re- 
cording and Corresponding Scribe, box 321, Pittsburgh. 

Fifteen bodies were received at the Fourth ward morgue, of which 
seven were unidentified, as follows: James Murray, of Philadelphia; 
William Marshall, Johnstown; Mrs. J. J. Llewellyn, Johnstown; Jas. 
Dillon, Somerset; Marion Root, Johnstown; Miss Annie McKinstry, 
Mrs. McKinstry and Jessie Hipp, Johnstown. At the Pennsylvania 
Railroad morgue six bodies were received, and two identified as E. M. 
Thomas and Howard J. Roberts, cashier First National Bank, Johns- 
town. At the Presbyterian Church morgue ten bodies were, received,. 
,and one identified as Sheriff John Ryan, of Johnstown. 

At 10.30 p. m. forty-seven bodies were discovered in a hole on 
the site of the Hurlbut House. They are supposed to be the bodies 
of .guests. 

The number of persons who have so far registered is 20a 10. 

The population of Johnstown and the neighborhood effected by 
the flood is about 35,000. The registration of 20,110 leaves almost 
15,000 to •be accounted for. It is not claimed that those who have not 
registered; are dead, for many had left the town before the system of 
registration began, and it is safe to say that 8,000 people have left. 

Among the most interesting relics of the flood is a small gold 
locket found in the ruins of the Hurlbut House yesterday. The locket 
contains a small curl of dark brown hair and has engraved on the in- 
side the following remarkable lines; "Lock of George Washington's 
hair, cut in Philadelphia, while on his way to Yorktown — 1781." Mr. 
Benford, one of the proprietors of the house, says that the locket was 
the;property of his sister, who was lost in the flood, and was presented 
to her by. an old lady in Philadelphia, whose' mother had herself cut 
the hair. from the "Father of his Country," and there is no doubt 
that the statement is reliable. 

Up Stony Creek Gap, above the contractors, the United States 
army engineers began work yesterday under command of Capt. 
Sears, who is here as the personal representative of the Secretary of 
War. The engineers, Capt. Bergland's company from Willett's Point 
and Lieut. Biddle's company from West Point arrived last night, 
having been since Tuesday on the road from New York. Early this 
morning they went to work to bridge Stony Creek, and unloaded and 
launched their heavy pontoons and strung them across the streams 
with a rapidity and skill that astonished the natives, who had mistaken 
them, in their coarse, working uniforms of overall stuff, for a fresh 
gang of laborers. The engineers, when there are bridges enough laid, 
•may be set at other work about town. They have a camp of their 
own .on. the .outskirts of the place. There are more constables, watch- 



28 JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 

men, special policemen and that sort of thing in Johnstown than in 
any three cities of its size in the country. Naturally there is great 
difficulty in equipping them. Badges were easily provided by the 
clipping out of stars from pieces of tin, but every one had to look out 
for himself when it came to clubs. Everything goes, from a broom- 
stick to a baseball bat. The bats are especially popular. 

"I'd like to get the job of handling your paper here," said a 
young fellow to a Pittsburgh newspaper man, 

"You'll have to get some newsman to do it anyhow, for your old 
men have gone down, and I and my partner are the only newsmen in 
Johnstown above ground." 

The newsdealing business is not the only one of which some- 
thing like that is true. 




HURRYING TO THE HILLS. 

There has been great scarcity of cooking utensils since the flood. 
It not only is very inconvenient to 4 the people, but tends to the waste 
of a great deal of food. 

The soldiers are growling bitterly over their commissary de- 
partment. They claim that bread and cheese and coffee is about all 
they get to eat. 

The temporary electric lights have now been strung all along the 
railroad tracks and through the central part of the ruins, so that the 
place after dark is really quite brilliant seen from a distance, espec- 
ially when to the electric display is added the red glow in the mist 
and smoke of huge bonfires. 

Anybody who has been telegraphing to Johnstown this week and 
getting no answers would understand the reason for the lack of an- 



JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 29 

swers if he could see the piles of telegrams that are sent out here 
by train from Pittsburgh. Four thousand came in one batch on Thurs- 
day. Half of them are still undelivered, and yet there is probably 
no place in the country where the Western Union Company is doing 
better work than here. The flood destroyed not only the company's 
offices, but the greater part of their wires, in this part of the country. 
The office they established here is in a little shanty with no windows 
and only one door, which doesn't close, and it handles an amount of 
outgoing matter daily that would swamp nine-tenths of the city offices 
in the country. Incoming business is now received in consider- 
able quantities, but for several days so great was the pressure 
of outgoing business that no attempt was made to receive any 
dispatches. 

The whole effort of the office has been to handle press matter, 
and how well they done it is shown by the amount of matter received 
from there that the daily papers have been publishing every day. 
The rush of press matter has been slacking a little now, and in a day 
or two private messages will probably be going back and forth with 
reasonable promptness. But there will be no efficient delivery service 
for a long time. The old messenger boys are all drowned, and the 
other boys who might make messenger boys are also most of them 
drowned so that the raw material for creating a service is very scant. 
Besides that, nobody knows nowadays where anyone else lives, and 
it is almost impossible to deliver private messages at all. 

The amateur and professional photographers who have overrun 
the town for the last few days came to grief yesterday. A good 
many of them were arrested by the soldiers, placed under a guard, 
taken down to the Stony Creek, and set to lugging logs and timber. 
Among those arrested were several of the newspaper photographers, 
and these Gen. Hastings ordered released when he heard of their arrest. 
The others were made to work for half a day. They were a mad and 
disgusted lot, and they vowed all sorts of vengeance. It does seem 
that some notice to the effect that photographers were not permitted 
in Johnstown should have been posted before the men were arrested. 
The photographers all had passes in regular form, but the soldiers re- 
fused to even look at these. Were not it that Gen. Hastings is a can- 
didate for Governor the reporters expect that they would be the ones 
to be arrested next. 

More sightseers got through the guards at Bolivar last night, and 
came to Johnstown on the last train. Word was telegraphed ahead, 
and the soldiers met them at the train, put them under arrest, kept 
them over night and this morning they were set to work in clearing 
up the ruins. 

The special detail of workmen who have been at work looking up 
safes in the ruins and seeing that they were taken care of report that 
none of the safes have been broken open or otherwise interfered with. 
The committee on valuables report that quantities of jewelry and 
money are being turned daily into them by people who have found 
them in the ruins. Often the people surrendering this stuff are evi- 
dently very poor themselves. The committee believes that as a gen- 



30 JOHNSTOWN HORROR. 

eral thing the people are dealing very honestly in this matter of 
treasure trove from the ruins. 

Three carloads of coffins was part of the load of one freight train 
this afternoon. Coffins already are scattered everywhere about the 
city. Scores of them seem to have been set down and forgotten. 
They are used as benches, and even, it is said, as beds. 

One enterprising man has opened a shop for the sale of relics of 
the disaster, and is doing a big business. Half the people here are 
relic cranks. Everything goes as a relic, from a horseshoe to a two- 
foot section of iron pipe. Buttons and little things like that, that can 
easily be carried off are the most popular. 

Grandma Mary Seter, aged 83 years, a well known character in 
Johnstown, who was in the water until Saturday, and who, when 
rescued, had her right arm so injured that amputation at the shoulder 




MADE ORPHANS BY THE FLOOD. 



was necessary, is doing finely at the hospital, and the doctors expect 
to have her around again before long. 

There has not been a photographer seen about the place to-day. 
The experience of the nine who were arrested and set to work on the 
ruins yesterday has scared off the rest. 

Out of the twenty-five Chinamen in Johnstown only three escaped 
the flood. Vice-President Frank Thompson, of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, arrived to-day on his special locomotive, having opened a 
way through from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. He is now going to 
push east over the main line as rapidly as possible. It is not likely 
that the line will be opened for three or four days yet. 

A woman made insane by the loss of her husband and all her 
children has been wandering about the edge of the gorge this after- 
noon, moaning and shrieking incessantly. She is one of several 
women who nave Deen thus alfected oy their affliction. For a ~ontin 
uation of this terrible calamity see Police Gazette eacn week. 



LIFE # BATTLES 



T 



JAKE KILRAIN 

CHAMPION PUGILIST OF THE WORLD, AND HOLDER OF 
THE "POLICE GAZETTE" DIAMOND BELT. 



WITH PORTRAITS of PROMINENT PUGILISTS 



This book is Superbly Illu.stra.ted with 
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. Sltetch.es and Wood Engravings 
drawn on the Spot by the 

«<l" POLICE GAZETTE" SPECIAL ARTIST.I> 



ALSO 

PORTRAITS OF SOME OF THE LEADING SPORTING MEN 

Op America and England, 



PRICE, BY MAIL,, - 25 CENTS. 



RICHARD K. FOX, Publisher, 

Franklin Square, New York. 



HISTORIC CRIMES. 

Being a Complete, Graphic and Thrilling Narrative 

OK" THE 

KILLING OF P. BARTON KEY 

BY 

MAJOR GENERAL SICKLES. 

THE NOTORIOUS MURDER OF DR. PARKHAM 



-BY- 



prof. wkbstkr, 

IN BOSTON, IHASS. 



The Brutal Slaughter of the Dearing Family, 

2jT:E]-A_:R, PHILADELPHIA. 



The Celebrated Case of Mrs. Cunningham, 
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